The ketogenic diet has become a new fad for losing weight. While many people swear by this diet, there are definitely a few things to keep in mind when starting a keto diet plan.
First of all, what is the keto diet?
The ketogenic diet is a low-carb, high-fat diet. Research on the keto diet suggests that it can help to reduce your appetite and spur weight loss. A truly effective keto diet plan will include healthy fats (80% of calories) and protein (20% of calories). Keep in mind that most Americans’ diets include carbs (50% of calories), protein (15% of calories) and fat (30% of calories). Thus, the keto diet requires a huge alteration to your eating habits and can often be relatively expensive. Keep in mind that a keto diet typically means under 20g net carbs per day!
For absolutely everything you need to know about a keto diet plan, how to start keto diet, a keto diet grocery list, a keto diet meal plan sample, keto diet tracker apps, and keto diet results, keep reading!!
How To Start Keto Diet
Starting the keto diet can be a huge shock to your system — and your finances! Fortunately, there are a few tried-and-true tricks to help you on your keto diet plan journey. Want to know how to start keto diet?
Check out these pointers:
● Restrict carbohydrates
If you’re not sure how to start keto diet or know nothing of a keto diet plan, don’t worry, we can help! The most important thing to help you start your keto diet plan is to restrict the amount of carbohydrates you consume. For a keto diet meal plan, this means less than 20g net carbs per day.
● Limit protein in-take
A keto diet does not mean a high protein diet. As mentioned above, your protein in-take should be about 20% of your calories, but not more.
● Drink lots of water
On a keto diet plan, it is easy to become dehydrated. Why is this? When you consume carbohydrates, your body stores the extra as glycogen in the liver. When you eat keto, your body burns the excess glycogen, allowing you to burn fat, which also means you store less water.
● Keep up your electrolytes
Since a keto diet can reduce the amount of water you store, this can also flush out your electrolytes (i.e. potassium, magnesium and sodium). When your electrolytes are flushed out, it can create the “keto flu,” but this is temporary. Your electrolytes can be restored by salting your food liberally.
● Eat only when you’re hungry
When you eat too frequently on a keto diet, this can affect weight loss significantly. After you’ve gone into ketosis, you will feel less hungry on a daily basis. This will help you to get out of the mindset that you need to snack throughout the day.
● Focus on fat
We’ve been taught to fear fat, but don’t!! For a keto diet plan, fat is your source of energy. Therefore, eat enough fat to be satisfied and full, but stop there.
Keto Diet Grocery List
When starting a keto diet plan, it can be difficult to know how to grocery shop. Fortunately, there are a few food items that are going to become your staple foods, that you can rely on for snacks and meals. Check out this simple and easy keto diet grocery list to help get you started with your keto diet plan!
- Eggs — pasteurized whole eggs are best
- Poultry (e.g. chicken and turkey)
- Fatty fish (e.g. wild caught salmon)
- Meat (e.g. beef, pork, organ meats and bison)
- Avocados — whole avocados are a great addition to any meal
- Nut Butter (e.g. peanut, almond or cashew)
- Full-fat Dairy (e.g. yogurt, butter or cream)
- Full-Fat Cheese (e.g. cheddar, goat cheese, mozzarella, brie or cream cheese)
- Nuts & Seeds (e.g. macadamia nuts, flax seeds, almonds, walnuts, peanuts or pumpkin seeds)
- Healthy Fats (e.g. coconut oil, coconut butter, avocado oil, olive oil and sesame oil)
- Non-Starchy Vegetables (e.g. broccoli, greens, peppers)
- Condiments (e.g. salt, pepper, lemon juice, vinegar, fresh herbs and spices)
Keto Diet Meal Plan (1 Week Sample Plan)
Need help getting started on a keto diet plan? The following is a 1-week sample of a keto diet meal plan to get you started! Feel free to mix and match the meal options, but keep track of your carb in-take! This keto diet meal plan is great for beginners to the keto diet plan.
However, if you would prefer less cooking, there are two options you can do: 1. Simplify your lunces by cooking two servings for dinner and refrigerate the second portion for lunch the next day, and 2. Simplify breakfast by picking one keto breakfast (e.g. scrambled eggs) and making it every morning, or skipping breakfast altogether! When you skip breakfast, this will raise your ketone levels and save you time and money.
Check out this keto diet meal plan sample below:
Monday
- Breakfast: Scrambled eggs (1g)
- Lunch: Keto Asian beef salad (7g)
- Dinner: Keto pizza (5g)
Tuesday
- Breakfast: Keto cheese roll-ups (2g)
- Lunch: Keto caprese omelet (4g)
- Dinner: Keto meat pie (7g)
Wednesday
- Breakfast: Dairy-free Keto latte (1g)
- Lunch: Keto avocado, bacon & goat cheese salad (6g)
- Dinner: Keto carbonara (9g)
Thursday
- Breakfast: Mushroom omelet (4g)
- Lunch: Keto smoked salmon plate (1g)
- Dinner: Keto tortilla with ground beef and salsa (9g)
Friday
- Breakfast: Baked Keto bacon omelet (2g)
- Lunch: Keto quesadillas (5g)
- Dinner: Keto Asian cabbage stir-fry (8g)
Saturday
- Breakfast: Keto spinach frittata (4g)
- Lunch: Keto chicken soup (4g)
- Dinner: Pork chops with green beans (6g)
Sunday
- Breakfast: Keto pancakes with berries (5g)
- Lunch: Italian Keto plate (8g)
- Dinner: Keto fried salmon with broccoli and cheese (6g)
Keto Diet Tracker (Top 5 Apps)
One of the hardest parts of the ketogenic diet and a keto diet plan is keeping track of the carbs you eat so that you don’t go over your max amount. Fortunately, there are a couple different keto diet trackers to help you stay on track! The following 5 apps are the top 5 keto diet trackers that will help you manage your carb in-take and stay in ketosis!
● Carb Manager: Keto Diet App
If you want to search for specific keto items, Carb Manager might be the keto diet tracker for you, since it has a database of more than a million foods! Additionally, this app features over 350,000 low carb recipes and helps you to track your weight, exercise and body measurements.
● KetoDiet
Looking for a keto starter guide? KetoDiet could be your go-to keto diet tracker! It has all the basics, including recipes, educational resources and body weight tracking.
● Keto App
The Keto App is definitely a great keto diet tracker since it allows personalization of goals depending on the amount of weight you want to lose. The basic version is free and allows you to track up to 5 food items a day.
● Senza
For Keto beginners, Senza is super easy and might just be the keto diet tracker for you! There is a 5-day starter guide and everything you need to know to stay in ketosis. Additionally, this app allows you access to a keto nutritionist and personalized food recommendations.
● Low Carb
The Low Carb app helps you with meal prepping and features cooking videos, a keto diet grocery list and a keto diet meal plan. This keto diet tracker has everything you need to get started!
Keto Diet Results
Once you’ve mastered the keto diet plan, you will begin to see some serious keto diet results!
What kind of keto diet results?
Check it out:
- Increase in energy
- Flatter stomach
- Non-existent cravings
- Rapid weight loss
- Sharper mental focus
- Less inflammation
And there you have it!
Absolutely everything you need to know about creating and sticking to a keto diet plan!
This post was written by Kara Roberts, blogger and content writer for Sincerely Silver. We specialize in creating custom made jewelry in sterling silver, gold and rose gold and have been featured in a number of publications, including Glamour. For gift ideas and personalized jewelry creations, check out our blog!
